This is the dedicated blog, of a Fragrance Connoisseur and Writer, Shaneela Rowah Al-Qamar. Its the BEST place to read about and learn about Arabian, Oriental or Oud based fragrances, perfume niches, Attar - and fragrances in general! Enjoy! :)

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Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Its National Fragrance Day! And Here Are Some Fragranced Words...And A Treat!

Happy National Fragrance Day!

Well! I hope that you
all took today as an opportunity to sniff out new scents, because I certainly
did! I wanted to check out some of the
exclusives available in London, and there are many exclusives that have been
released to Harrods and Selfridges.
Today, I am going to discuss my favourites!

Until last week, Penhaligon’s had a temporary pop up in
Harrods, featuring many new exclusives that are not even advertised on their
website yet! Two of these were Sohan and
Yasmine. Both were utterly
beautiful woody, dreamy, boozy scents. My favourite out of the two and the one that
stood out the most, was Yasmine. What
can I say? Jasmine. That wonderful Jasmine absolute really teases
the notes of Bulgarian Rose, Oud, Coffee and Vanilla. The oud, coffee and vanilla meld into this
amazingly deep sweet but not too sweet dry down, kind of like the smell of a
vanilla flavoured cake steaming hot out of an oven, but with much more depth
and

booziness. It is to die for! This scent of course is full on gourmand,
especially if you place the rose note into the gourmand category. The coffee is not so apparent, but without
it, the scent wouldn’t have had as much depth.
It performs to the strength required, like notes in a musical tune,
whilst the others sing their song. This
is a perfume done well, created well, with the dry down being almost
ambery-creamy like. It can take so many
angles! Unfortunately, the Harrods
pop-up has ended – so keep your eyes peeled on Penhaligon’s website for more
details!

Now moving onto my recent find. Found today, in fact. In celebration of National Fragrance Day, I
wanted to check out the Selfridges exclusives.
Quite a few niche houses have placed their exclusives, over the last few
weeks into Selfridges, but one that stood out for me, was Prada’s latest oud
scent. Now, yes – it’s a typically western
fashion house that has also jumped onto the oud bandwagon, but it’s an oud well
done! The barnyard bitterness opening of the oud
and the clashes of it with the deep leathery notes are absolutely phenomenal! I was literally taken a back, it was
sour-bitter and sharp, barnyard oud with the deep leather really create a
beautiful blend together, both literally fighting for the attention of your
senses. I felt like the leather wanted
to out-do the oud and vice versa. Well,
I had to let them calm down a bit. This
is the fragrance that you smell on someone else, but when I say someone else, I
do not mean anyone. It’s that one unique
person from whom you smell a scent that you have never smelled before, and you
want it so bad but you cannot get it or don’t know what it is. It is some obscure thing from another world. It is that fragrance which creates memories
and it is that fragrance which creates deep associations with the person wearing
it. It cries out for you to take it on
and make it a part of your identity. It
wants to have that special place with you – and boy did it get it! The heart notes of this fragrance, was the beautiful
marriage of the now slightly weakening oud and leather notes, being married
together with the rose, creating that boozy effect again, that lingering ambery
depth that we see a lot, but the dry down is this almost smoky rose, tinted with
the surrendered leather note, which has taken a back seat from the oud, and
taking notice of the rose. The oud is
still there in the background, but it’s also weakened and has settled down
within this 3-way marriage with the rose, blending into one. Its indescribable. When it comes to taming the loud oud and
leather notes, it truly is a miracle if that happens and the rose certainly did
its job well in taming them. Not
surprising, that it’s called The Miracle of The Rose...This is a must have in
any oud collection!

Now, before I sign off, here's a treat! To celebrate National Fragrance Day,
The Scented Souq is giving YOU 10% off your next order, but you will have to
hurry, because the offer ends this Friday 24th March 2017! So, pop over to the website now, to grab your
spring scent for the season!! My
favourites for this spring are Chenille Lotus and Lail Al-Iskandriya! Both are beautiful introductions to the
summer season just around the corner! To
take advantage of the 10% off, be sure to enter promo code: NATIONALSCENT at
the checkout!!